Adjustable beds are often used in home health care. Such beds typically include a height adjustment mechanism that is operable to raise or lower the bed spring. The height adjustment mechanism may be manual or electric. A manual mechanism uses a hand crank to operate a gearbox to raise and lower the bed spring. An electric mechanism uses an electric motor that rotates a drive shaft or drive tube. The drive shaft is connected with gearboxes that face inward on the respective bed ends, that is, toward the opposite end. When the motor is actuated, rotational force is transmitted to the bed ends to synchronously raise and lower movable portions of the bed ends that support the bed spring. One such type of adjustable bed end is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,731, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Since the rotational force acts in the same direction of rotation at both ends of the bed, identical head and foot bed ends are not used because their gearboxes would cause one bed end to raise and the other bed end to lower. As a result, separate head ends and foot ends are typically provided for an adjustable bed. This results in the need to manufacture and store two different kinds of bed ends, and can cause mistakes when delivering and setting up a bed in a patient's home.